PNNL researcher Bruce Kay has been elected to membership in the Washington State Academy of sciences and three other staff members have been elected to positions on the WSAS board of directors.
To study some of the tiniest particles in the universe, an international band of physicists is building a massive instrument to look for signs of particles predicted to be fundamental to the workings of the universe.
In fast-neutron reactors, fuel is sealed in ~7 millimeter diameter steel tubes called cladding. When a high-energy "fast" neutron strikes an atom in the steel, it can knock the atom out of place, like a cue ball striking another billiard ball. This leaves two types of damage in the metal: an empty spot where the atom was, and the displaced atom wedged between other atoms. Over time, these defects typically drive undesirable rearrangement of the microstructure, potentially reducing the life of the cladding.
Here at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, much of our physics research focuses on fundamental scientific discovery and national security.